Picklebet fined for breaching BetStop self-exclusion rules
Australian bookmaker Picklebet has paid a $19,800 penalty after accepting bets from a customer who had registered with BetStop, Australia’s national gambling self-exclusion register.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found that Puntaa Pty Ltd, trading as Picklebet, breached federal gambling laws on February 9, 2026, when it accepted bets from a self-excluded customer.
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According to the regulator’s investigation report, the customer had opened a Picklebet account on January 25 before registering with BetStop on February 9.
Picklebet subsequently accepted bets between 11:39am and 11:54am AEDT, despite the customer’s self-exclusion already being active.
The bookmaker had checked the customer’s registration status earlier that morning, but the request returned a negative result because the exclusion had not yet taken effect.
Picklebet did not receive confirmation of the customer’s registration until 1:54pm, when it automatically closed the account.
The investigation also revealed that Picklebet sent two promotional text messages to the customer while they were registered with BetStop.
However, the ACMA determined that the bookmaker had not acted recklessly and therefore had not breached the relevant marketing restrictions.
The regulator examined 105 customer accounts during its investigation and found no additional breaches relating to account closures.
The penalty comes ahead of tougher federal self-exclusion laws taking effect on January 1, 2027, including substantially increased financial penalties for non-compliant betting sites.
